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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27571906">Works Just Fine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/heroineaddict/pseuds/heroineaddict'>heroineaddict</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Chronicles of Narnia (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, nothing overly graphic, some blood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:48:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,525</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27571906</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/heroineaddict/pseuds/heroineaddict</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Edmund gets “nicked” when he shoved the sword into the roof of the sea serpent’s mouth. He thinks it’s a small graze in the moment but he realizes as he gets down off of the crows nest that it’s very bad.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Caspian/Edmund Pevensie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>200</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Works Just Fine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompt and summary from @/dollophead-merlin on Tumblr. Some mild violence, I’m shit with titles so please judge at your leisure.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Blackness lay ahead; a swirling, turbulent fog that sucked up the sunlight and marred the horizon like an angry black stain. The Dawn Treader was headed directly for it.</p><p>The tension in the crew is palpable, every man and beast thrumming with unspoken foreboding and the unasked question, ‘What if we don’t get out?’</p><p>Edmund finds he can’t quite look away. The wind whipping past their faces, stinging their cheeks and eyes, barely registers as he stares without blinking at the menacing inky tempest, hypnotized.</p><p>A hand on his shoulder startles him out of his trance; he turns to see Caspian, who offers an understanding smile before turning to head below. Edmund follows; he needs to prepare as much as anyone else.</p><p>His armor is in the main cabin, where he finds Caspian dressing for battle, face grim. They haven’t spoken much since the incident at Deathwater, and Edmund feels more than a little awkward. Rather than look Caspian in the eyes, Edmund looks everywhere else; at the polished wood of the walls, the carved lion, the maps and charts laid out on the table, the benches lining the far wall.</p><p>Caspian clears his throat softly and holds out a cuirass. He won’t quite meet Edmund’s eyes either. Edmund accepts the cuirass and slides it over his head, realizing as he does that Caspian is speaking.</p><p>“I know it may not seem like it,” Caspian begins, voice barely above a whisper and cheeks flushed pink, “but I’ve always thought of you like- well like a brother, Ed.”</p><p>“You know I do too,” Edmund replies automatically, but his heart isn’t in the words. Caspian seems to notice, eyes narrowing shrewdly, but he doesn’t say anything.</p><p>Edmund is grateful for the silence. ‘Brother’ is the last thing he’d ever want Caspian to be, and as Caspian crosses the room to help him lace up the cuirass, he can’t help but wonder if Caspian means something different when he says ‘brother.’ His hands linger just a moment too long on Edmund’s waist, his body is just a bit too close.</p><p>Brotherly isn’t the right way at all to describe it.</p><p>——</p><p>The wind seems to die as they cross the threshold into the void; the sails hang limp, but somehow, it still rushes past them at a breakneck clip.</p><p>Edmund hears a whisper from one of the men that they’re cursed, and he can’t say he disagrees. Reepicheep chastises the speaker, and they all fall silent again.</p><p>——</p><p>Rhoop is half mad as they call out to him, eyes wild as Eustace the Dragon swoops over him and (rather unceremoniously) snatches him up. When he’s deposited on the deck of the Dawn Treader, he raves like a vagrant Edmund once saw in London, who screamed that the end was near.</p><p>Caspian, with grace and command befitting a king, calms Rhoop with a word. He’s captivating and splendid as his presence overpowers the hysteria and Rhoop stills, speaking a single sentence before falling silent.</p><p>Their worst fears come true in this void.</p><p>A leaden feeling settles deep into Edmund’s stomach. In the past, he had been an accomplished seaman, but while on the sea, he never forgot his terror of the legends of the sea serpent.</p><p>“Oh no,” he whispers as the ocean vibrates, like his thoughts were a clarion call to the monster below.</p><p>Chaos erupts not a moment after, fear immediately leaving Edmund as the instinct of battle takes over. He flies over the ship, almost in a daze as they fight the serpent, until finally, on the fighting top, he plunges his sword into the maw of the beast, crowing in triumph as the serpent screams and flails.</p><p>A fang grazes his wrist and rakes up his arm, but he barely notices, wiping away the blood as he yanks the sword from the mouth of the serpent, which seizes and splashes back into the sea.</p><p>Tremors wrack his body as he climbs down from the fighting top, half falling the last third of the way. As his boots hit the wood of the deck, he realizes that his arm and shoulder are drenched in blood.</p><p>Far too much blood.</p><p>Caspian is immediately at his side, saying words Edmund can no longer hear; Caspian is too far away. His vision stutters and his legs give out, and from miles away, he can hear Caspian screaming.</p><p>——</p><p>“Lucy!” Caspian shouts, cradling Edmund in his arms, who’s now ashen faced and unconscious. Lucy is at his side in an instant, cordial in hand. She immediately pours a drop into Edmund’s mouth.</p><p>Seconds pass, and Edmund doesn’t wake.</p><p>“It should’ve worked by now,” Lucy whispers, fear plain in her voice. “Why didn’t it work?”</p><p>Caspian’s blood is cold with dread. From somewhere off to his side, he hears Drinian giving orders - strong hands pry Edmund from his grip, tearing his cuirass and shirt off and gasping when they see the long, deep tear in his arm. The edges are an unnatural green; the serpent was venomous.</p><p>“Ed,” Caspian whispers, words stolen by the wind; he doesn’t even register the sunlight piercing the clouds, focus only on Edmund as Drinian tourniquets Edmund’s arm and scoops him up to take him below.</p><p>Lucy follows immediately, and Caspian wants to, but the crew need him. His distress must be visible, because Rhince steps up to push him in the direction of the stairs, a soft assurance that they can handle this without him.</p><p>He doesn’t bother protesting.</p><p>The ship is minimally damaged below, which Caspian notices with a removed sense of relief as he strides to the small infirmary in the aft section of the ship.</p><p>The cold dread suffuses him again as he pushes the door open to see Drinian and Lucy bent over Edmund’s still unconscious body.</p><p>“Is he-”</p><p>Drinian shakes his head.</p><p>“Not dead yet, your majesty. Her majesty tried another drop of that cordial, and it seems to have cured the poison. I don’t think there’s much more we can do except wait.”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Lucy says miserably, and Caspian crosses the small room to wrap her up into a tight hug.</p><p>“Don’t be,” he says, feeling her trembling against him. “You’ve done more than anyone else could.”</p><p>“I just hope it’s enough,” Lucy whispers. Caspian releases her, and Drinian shoots him a knowing look as he ushers Lucy out.</p><p>Edmund’s face is still pale, but Caspian thinks it may be a bit less so than before. The tourniquet is still wrapped around his arm, just under his shoulder. Caspian vaguely wonders how long it need stay there.</p><p>Nothing to do except wait, he reminds himself, but waiting is intensely difficult.</p><p>Eventually, he dozes off.</p><p>——</p><p>Waking up is like pushing through a thick fog; Edmund’s eyes fight to open and he groans as he finally manages it. His arm is in agony, from the fiery gash that hadn’t seemed worse than a scratch in the heat of the moment, to the tourniquet that’s somehow managed to numb everything but the pain.</p><p>Caspian is in the room, eyes closed where he sits on the floor, leaning against the wall. Edmund moves to sit up, but finds he doesn’t even remotely have the strength.</p><p>“Caspian,” he croaks, as loud as he’s able, hoping it’s loud enough. He needs help getting this tourniquet off before his arm falls off.</p><p>It works; Caspian’s eyes fly open and he’s immediately up and at Edmund’s side.</p><p>“Ed,” he breathes, cupping Edmund’s face in his hands. “By the mane, I thought you’d died.”</p><p>“Feels like I had a good try at it,” Edmund replies hoarsely, nodding at his arm. “Can you get that off?”</p><p>Like lightning, Caspian’s fingers work at the knotted fabric of the tourniquet, carefully and gently peeling it away and tossing it into a nearby bin.</p><p>“Better?”</p><p>“I suppose that depends on your definition of better,” Edmund quips weakly. “But yeah. Thank you.”</p><p>“How do you feel?” Caspian asks, which Edmund thinks is a bit of a nonstarter.</p><p>“Well I’ve felt better,” he teases weakly, and Caspian flushes bright pink. Brotherly indeed, Edmund thinks.</p><p>“Sorry,” Caspian replies, hands fidgeting with the edge of his cuirass. “I’ve been...worried.”</p><p>“Brotherly worry?” Edmund suggests, smirking to himself despite the pain when Caspian’s eyes go wide. “Thought not.”</p><p>“Well what should I have said?” Caspian protests, sliding an arm around Edmund’s shoulders as he attempts to sit upright in the tiny bed.</p><p>“‘I love you,’ would’ve worked just fine.” Edmund hisses as Caspian’s hand grips the tender area where the tourniquet had been tied. “Easy, I think whoever did that damn thing tried to cut my whole arm off.”</p><p>A weak chuckle is Caspian’s response. “Sorry,” he says again, not moving away from Edmund’s side once he’s sitting upright. “You mean that, though?”</p><p>“I’m not a fan of saying things I don’t mean,” Edmund replies, looking up and meeting Caspian’s eyes for the first time in what feels like years. “So yeah. ‘I love you,’ works just fine.”</p><p>“Well then,” Caspian says, a hint of a quiver in his voice, “I love you.”</p><p>Edmund smiles. “I love you too.”</p>
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